"Some of what I've heard coming out of Wisconsin, where you're just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain, generally seems like more of an assault on unions," Obama said. "And I think it's very important for us to understand that public employees, they're our neighbors, they're our friends."

But..see...that's the thing....Tea Party Brownshirts don't see union workers as their friends and neighbors. Tea Party Brownshirts see union workers, and unions in general, as their enemies. Union members are commies....participating in some socialistic long range program to destroy business and bankrupt local and state governments. According to Ohio Tea Party leaders, unionized workers pose about as large of a danger to America as Bin Laden's guys.....

.....local tea party leader Ted Lyons, an electronics executive from Troy, Ohio, who said the proposed union changes are long overdue. “
The labor unions have become so powerful now on a worldwide basis,” Lyons said. “
It’s beyond just the benefits of the membership, it’s about all the spending.”

The fact that the number of unionized workers has been dwindling since the 1950's and barely represent 10% of the nation's workforce today....means to Tea Partiers that they must work that much harder to crush what remains. You see....even though union membership has dwindled.....national unionized workers are politically active. Organized labor supports the Democratic Party, funds campaign ads, and runs get-out-to-vote efforts.

And THAT is why Tea Partiers have brownshirted themselves up and joined corporate-whore governors from the GOP, like Walker and Kasich, to support bills which would crush collective bargaining rights for state employees in Wisconsin and Ohio.

Go back in time to the first few months of 2009 when union busting and union smearing Republicans in Congress wailed about how much goddamn money unionized auto workers allegedly made. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) actually insisted that American unionized auto workers should work for the same wages that foreign-car-making, non-unionized auto workers in the U.S. made.

Republican senators then, just as Ohio and Wisconsin GOP-led Tea Partiers now, were trying to bustup the autoworker unions during negotiations to bailout GM and Chrysler. Republican senators then, just as Ohio and Wisconsin GOP-led Tea Partiers now, took the opportunity of the financial industry's collapse on the auto industry....to try to bustup the automaker unions. Republicans pitted American against American....in some kind of faux Death Debate over rushing to the bottom of the labor-price barrel.

Point here is that what we're seeing in Columbus and Madison is what Republicans have been doing for decades. Serving their big business masters and damaging their Democratic counterparts by doing everything possible to destroy the influence of unions in America.

In Wisconsin, there isn't even a state budget deficit problem. The rank-amateur Tea Partier, Gov. Walker, cut $140 million in taxes on...who else?....businesses....immediately after taking office. The alleged shortfall in Wisconsin is $121 million.....solely created by the new business tax cutting and new health savings account measures. Unions and collective bargaining and binding arbitration had not one goddamn thing to do with it.

In Ohio, the extremely little man who is governor, John Kasich, is reportedly dealing with an $8 billion state deficit. Primarily, that deficit has come about from slashing the state income tax under the 18%-approval-rated governship of Bob Taft...and...the outsourcing of Ohio manufacturing jobs. Yet, LittleJohn not only supports ending Ohio's estate tax, starving the state of another 1/3 billion per year....but he also supports the elimination of the state income tax altogether.

And so what does LittleJohn do? He goes after collective bargaining and binding arbitration rights of state employees. The immediate savings....you know....to help reduce that $8 billion state deficit??Zero f*cking dollars.

Finally, a word about benefits and pensions. During the Banksters raid of America, we were told, after the bailout, that bonuses to the thieves who robbed us had to be honored. Why? Contracts had been negotiated and signed. That's why. Couldn't violate those already-agreed-upon contracts.

Yet, what are the TeaBaggers and the LittleJohns and the WalkerBacks saying now about contracts? What weight do negotiated union contracts carry now with the rush-to-the-bottom crowd? None, whatsoever. As far as Walker and Kasich are concerned those contracts that all parties signed onto would find better use as ass wipes.

It's all about busting up organized labor and has nothing to do with savings or deficits. What we're witnessing in Wisconsin and Ohio is pure power politics. Republicans and their incoherent and ignorant Brownshirted Tea Party enforcers are attempting to strike a fatal blow to the Democratic Party by crushing what little union membership there is left.